Finding a Will of an English Earl or What's in a Name?

In our genealogy and family history research we've all probably come across challenges with finding someone in the records when searching for them by their name. The issue could be a problem with the transcription used to create the index such as what I found for the household of Thomas S. Pattillo inthe 1911 Census of Canada where the surname was originally transcribed as "Pattires" by the folks at Ancestry.

1911 Census of Canada, population schedule, Nova Scotia, Colchester district (41), Truro sub-district (25), p. 13, dwelling 113, family 125, household of Thomas S. Pattires [Thomas S. Pattillo], digital image, Ancestry (www.ancestry.com: accessed 13 Nov 2024); citing Library and Archives Canada microfilm T-20358.

Maybe the civil or church authority who recorded the name in an official document spelled the name as they heard it. I came across that challenge for the household of John Haughton in the 1881 Census of Canada where the enumerator recorded the name as "Hutton".

1881 Census of Canada, population schedule, Ontario, Simcoe North district (139), Tiny sub-district (H), division 2, p. 61, dwelling 250, family 254, household of John Hutton, digital image, Ancestry (www.ancestry.com: accessed 13 Nov 2024); citing Library and Archives Canada microfilm C-13251.

We might even come across cases where a nickname or diminutive of the name is recorded. Possibly someone was named after their great-aunt Agnes but they go by the name Nancy since they think that Agnes sounds old-fashioned.

Then there is the interesting case a patron at a recent joint Ottawa Public Library - Ottawa Branch of Ontario Ancestors Genealogy Drop-In brought to the group. She was looking for help in locating the will of the 12th or 13th Earl of Derby as part of her efforts to confirm a family story of a possible undocumented child of one of those two Earls.

It should be easy to find the will I thought.

The first thing I did was to look up the details about the 12th and 13th Earls of Derby using Wikipedia to find out their birth names and when they died. I could also have looked up the entries in Burke's A Genealogical and Heraldic History of the Peerage and Baronetage, the Privy Council, Knightage and Companionage. 

I learned the following details:

• 12th Earl of Derby: born Edward Smith-Stanley and died 21 Oct 1834
• 13th Earl of Derby: born Edward Smith-Stanley and died 30 Jun 1851

Since both of the Earls died before 1857, I can't use the "Search probate records for documents and wills (England and Wales)" site. At the drop-in, John Reid, one of our subject matter experts, suggested that we need to look in the Prerogative Court of Canterbury (PCC) records since they cover the years 1384 to 1858. Since Ancestry has indexed and made available the images from the PCC wills in their "England & Wales, Prerogative Court of Canterbury Wills, 1384-1858" collection that's where I started.

And got absolutely nowhere!

I searched for any "Edward Smith-Stanley" who died around 1834 or 1851. I even searched for Edward Smith Stanley". I searched for all kinds of variations on the name and expanded the year range but there was no one who matched what I was looking for.

Since we only have an hour to help those dropping in, I put the searching aside and the group continued with the next question. But this was an itch that I just couldn't scratch. So at around 11 p.m. that night (it was one of those "I can't sleep" research itches) I dived back in this problem.

Might the will had been proved in another court such as the Prerogative Court of York or at a local court in England?

But first there was one other place I wanted to check for the Prerogative Court of Canterbury wills. That is The National Archives (England) "Wills 1384-1858" research guide since it has a search box. Instead of searching by name I searched for the keyword "Earl of Derby" (without quotes). I got back 18 results and two results got my immediate attention:

Reference:     PROB 11/1853/415
Description:     Will of The Right Honorable Edward Earl of Derby of Chester , Cheshire
Date:     25 November 1835
Held by:     The National Archives, Kew

and

Reference:     PROB 11/2140/271
Description:     Will of The Right Honorable Edward Earl of Derby of Angel Inn, John Street, Minories , City of London
Date:     22 October 1851
Held by:     The National Archives, Kew

So it seems that the wills for both the 12th and 13th Earls of Derby were proven in the Prerogative Court of Canterbury. I could even download a digitized copy of both of those wills for free from The National Archives if I sign in with my free account.

Yet why couldn't I find these wills on Ancestry?

I puzzled over that for a few minutes and then noticed that nowhere in the description is his birth surname "Smith-Stanley" recorded. Could Ancestry have taken his title and used it as his last name?

In searching for any "Edward" with the last name of "Earl" who died around 1834 only one entry was returned in the results:

Screen capture of the entry from Ancestry of the "England & Wales, Prerogative Court of Canterbury Wills, 1384-1858" collection index page found by searching for the first name "Edward", last name "Earl", who died around 1834.

Same with searching for any "Edward" with the last name of "Earl" who died around 1851:

Screen capture of the entry from Ancestry of the "England & Wales, Prerogative Court of Canterbury Wills, 1384-1858" collection index page found by searching for the first name "Edward", last name "Earl", who died around 1851.

After reviewing the images, I was certain that was them. It only took me less than two hours of effort to find the will and to understand why I couldn't find the information during our drop-in.

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Now that we know how those copies of the wills of the peerage of the United Kingdom have been possibly recorded in the index of the "England & Wales, Prerogative Court of Canterbury Wills, 1384-1858" database on Ancestry we can try our hand at finding other wills of nobility proven in that court.

We can find other interesting wills of the English and Welsh peerage in this Ancestry collection by searching on the rank of nobility such as Earl/Countess, Viscount/Viscountess, Marquess/Marchioness, or Duke/Duchess, as their last name. But Duke and Earl are also possible actual last names. How do we filter out the non-peerage? By adding an exact Keyword match of "Honorable" or "Noble". You can even leave off the rank of nobility and just search use the exact match Keyword of "Highness" to find wills of some princes and princesses. I even came across the copy of the will of Her Most Excellent Majesty Charlotte, Queen of the United Kingdoms of Great Britain and Ireland by just using the exact Keyword search of "Majesty" and leaving out all the other details.

Start of the will of Charlotte, Queen of the United Kingdoms of Great Britain and Ireland, probated 26 Jan 1819; "England & Wales, Prerogative Court of Canterbury Wills, 1384-1858," Ancestry (www.ancestry.com : accessed 13 Nov 2024); citing The National Archives (Kew), PROB 11/1612.

So be creative when you are doing your searches by name, especially when it comes to those of who are Peers of the United Kingdom!

But the research has already been done!

Sometimes when I'm talking to people about their family history they will state something along the lines of "That branch has already been researched and there is even a book so why should I do it?" When I first started my family history and genealogy research I used to have the same feelings. The Chipman family has a number of books compiled by various family members, same with the Fraser family of which I'm a descendant. Why should I duplicate all the work done by others?

To answer that question, how about we take a look at an interesting case concerning the family of "Daniel Wilsey Hatfield". Daniel married into the Lannen branch descended from Simon Baxter, in theory my 6th great-grandfather¹, of New Brunswick, Canada.

This is from the book "The Hatfields of Westchester : a genealogy of the descendants of Thomas Hatfield of New Amsterdam and Mamaroneck, whose sons settled in White Plains, Westchester County, New York" by Abraham Hatfield published in 1935 that I found on the Internet Archive.

Abraham Hatfield, compiler, The Hatfields of Westchester : a genealogy of the descendants of Thomas Hatfield of New Amsterdam and Mamaroneck, whose sons settled in White Plains, Westchester County, New York, (Rutland, Vermont: New York Genealogical and Biographical Society, 1935), p 99; digital images, Internet Archive (https://archive.org/details/hatfieldsofwestc00hatf_0/page/n1/mode/2up : accessed 23 Jun 2020).

As you can see there is a lot of good information provided. Even better, on the next page the compiler has included the authorities from where he receive the information. Something that is often omitted in these sorts of family genealogies.

Abraham Hatfield, compiler, The Hatfields of Westchester : a genealogy of the descendants of Thomas Hatfield of New Amsterdam and Mamaroneck, whose sons settled in White Plains, Westchester County, New York, (Rutland, Vermont: New York Genealogical and Biographical Society, 1935), p 100; digital images, Internet Archive (https://archive.org/details/hatfieldsofwestc00hatf_0/page/n1/mode/2up : accessed 23 Jun 2020).

So everything should be good to go and we can trust what is written, right?

For those that have been reading my blog you will know that one mantra I stress is along the lines of "Trust no one, verify everything, and even if written in stone it might be wrong."

So what can we verify concerning the facts about Daniel as written in his biography? How about we start with his marriage to Mary Ann Lannen?

We are fortunate that a number of the New Brunswick marriage registers are available on FamilySearch in the New Brunswick marriage registers, 1792-1889 collection. This includes the Kings County, v. A, 1812-1844; v. B, 1844-1867 marriage registers. How do I know to look there? One reason was that Ancestry gave me a hint from the New Brunswick, Canada, Marriages, 1789-1950 collection but the main reason is that back in 2012 at Library and Archives Canada I came across the entry in the transcriptions of the marriages registers by Ruby M. Cusack in her work "Kings County Marriages: Register A".

Kings, New Brunswick, Marriage Register v. A, 1812-1844, Daniel Hatfield-Mary Ann Lannen; FHL microfilm 845,798, item 1, image 163.

According to the marriage register, which would have been created closer to the time of the event than the biography, they were married in 1828 and not 1829. That means for me that everything in his biography from this book is now suspect and needs to be verified.

I've not been able to confirm the date of his birth but based on the decennial census enumerations between 1851 and 1871 he was born about 1798. I was able to locate abstracts of newspaper articles through the Daniel F Johnson's New Brunswick Newspaper Vital Statistics database found on the Provincial Archives of New Brunswick site to confirm the date of his death in 1878. I haven't taken the time to confirm his land ownership but with the New Brunswick, county deed registry books, 1780-1930 collection on FamilySearch it wouldn't take to much effort to track any land transactions for him.

As for Daniel's middle name, the abstracts from the newspaper articles either record it as "W." or "Wesley". In the land deed records in Kings County, New Brunswick he is recorded as "Daniel Hatfield of Norton" without any initials. His youngest son, Heber, middle name is recorded as "Wolsey" in  the 1871 census of Canada and the articles about Heber's death in Chicago. But it could be Wilsey, we just don't know.

What about Daniel's wife, Mary Ann Lannen? What can we learn about her? Using the Daniel F Johnson's New Brunswick Newspaper Vital Statistics collection we can find the abstract for her death notices in two newspapers and they both match what is in the biography. That's a good start.

However, it seems that she is not the daughter of Simon Lannen and Abigail Baxter but of John Lannen. This can be found in the abstract in the Wallace Hale's Early New Brunswick Probate, 1785-1835 database on the Provincial Archives of New Brunswick site. There in the abstract from John Lannen's will is written: "Daughter Mary Ann HATFIELD, wife of Daniel HATFIELD land."

But can we trust Wallace Hale's work? So far I haven't had any issues but since I try to verify everything, through the magic of the interlibrary loan program, back in 2015 I ordered a copy of the microfilm from the Provincial Archives of New Brunswick that holds the probate file for John Lannen.

Kings County, New Brunswick, Probate Files, RS 66, John Lannen, 1832, will, p 2; Provincial Archives of New Brunswick, F11570. 

Although authorities have been listed for the information, this book doesn't indicate where they got their information. Was it from newspapers or bibles or was it from what they were told as they were growing up? We will probably never know. Just from a bit of digging through the records that are available to us we can see some mistakes in the biography of Daniel Hatfield and Mary Ann Lannen were found.

Can we blindly trust these sorts of compilations of family histories and genealogies? For me, I'd say no. However, they can provide clues for us to follow and confirm through using our own research skills.

So even if there is a book written about your family, take a look at the information held within and take the time and effort to verify and validate the facts recorded. You may just find that you discover something else that no one else has found that could change the family narrative (Widow's Pension Application = One Less Brick Wall).

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1. I say "in theory" because I've not been able to connect, to my personal satisfaction, my 4th great-grandmother, Hannah Baxter, to her probable parents of Elijah and May (nee Smith) Baxter.

Charles Thomas Walter McKinlay of New Zealand, part 2

In Charles Thomas Walter McKinlay of New Zealand, part 1 I described what I had found concerning the reason why someone on Ancestry had listed "Panama in route to New Zealand" as the location for his death. In my search I had added a few to do items:

1. who is this F. B. Thomas that his mother married?
2. find details about his marriage to Isabella
3. find a notice of death in the newspapers
4. what else can I find?

I started with #3, seeing if I could find a notice of Charles' death in a newspaper. So I turned to Papers Past which is a digitized archives of not just newspapers but of magazines, journals, letters, diaries, and parliamentary papers for New Zealand. I was hoping to find the Auckland Weekly listed for 1918 but no such luck so I did a focused search in the hopes of finding another article about Charles.

Search results from Papers Past for "McKinlay", in the Otago region between 22 Apr 1918 and 31 Dec 1918.

Note the circled article, "Late Private C. McKinlay" from the 24 May 1918 edition of The Clutha Leader. A quick click on the link brought up the following article found on page 5 of The Clutha Leader:

"Late Private C. McKinlay," The Clutha Leader, 24 May 1918, p. 5, col. 5; digital images, Papers Past - National Library of New Zealand (https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/ : accessed 21 Jan 2018), Newspapers.

The above clipping provided more details about his death and his funeral that were not found in his service file. The same article was repeated in the Bruce Herald on 27 May 1918.

What about Charles' marriage to Isabella? For that I went to the New Zealand Births, Deaths & Marriages Online Search and Order Historical Records site. There I did a search for a bride with the forename of "Isabella", a groom with the surname of "McKinlay" and a date range starting at 1 Jan 1902.

[Why 1902 you ask? Charles would have been 14 years old that year. Although English Common Law allowed girls to marry at age 12 and boys at age 14 it was rare but you want to take in account those rare cases in your searches. The ages weren't changed in New Zealand until the Marriage Amendment Act 1933.]

Search results from New Zealand Births, Deaths & Marriages Online Search and Order Historical Records for bride's forename "Isabella", groom's surname "McKinlay", starting 1 Jan 1902.

ND$ 25 later for a "Marriage printout from 1 Jan 1875" and waiting a week resulted in the digitized copy ending up in my inbox of the "Copy of Register of Marriage" for Charles Thomas Walter McKinlay, son of James McKinlay and Johan McKinlay Thomas (m/s Riddell) and Isabella Margaret Emily Smith, daughter of Alexander Thomson Smith and Mary Maria Smith (m/s Williams) that took place on 25 Oct 1915 in the Congregational Church on Great King Street, Dunedin.

As for what else I found? I dropped by Findmypast.com but nothing new appeared for Charles Thomas Walter McKinlay that I hadn't found in Archive New Zealand, the Historical BMD site, or on Ancestry. However, on FamilySearch.org a record was listed in the "New Zealand, Archives New Zealand, Probate Records, 1843-1998" collection. After downloading the 10 pages from that file [You do save documents you find on the Internet to your own computer, right?] I read the file. No surprises were found in the file but it is always good to gather all the documents and details you can find when doing your research.

You might have noticed I still haven't answered the question concerning who Charles' mother, Johan Riddell, marry after the death of her husband James McKinlay...that is for another day since I'm still working through the various records to untangle that particular mess. However, as a teaser to a future blog post, the only New Zealand marriage recorded between 1888 and 1906 for a "Thomas" with the initials of "F. B." is Frederick Blanchard Thomas to Annie McKinery. The ordered marriage registration unfortunately only clouds the issue since many recorded facts in the document don't match the details previously recorded for Johan Riddell. Such is the life of a genealogy and family history researcher!

Finding William Small Howe (part 3)

As we saw in Part 1 and Part 2 of Finding William Small Howe, after disappearing from the Colony of New Brunswick after the 1851 census William Small Howe was found in the State of Maine, USA. We still haven't found that smoking gun document that connects him with his parents after he moves to Maine but the evidence looks pretty good when it is presented as a bundle. So what else can we discover?

Since I have a paid subscription with Ancestry I will continue to search there...

The first hint that popped up is one from the U.S., Find A Grave Index, 1600s-Current database. Since this is an index I want to check out the Find A Grave page to see if it is just a simple memorial page gleaned from other sources without a picture of the marker or, if we are very lucky, there will be a picture with other details provided.

And we are lucky!

The memorial has not just a picture of the marker but also a close up of the writing and calculated relationships.

Find A Grave, database and images (http://findagrave.com : accessed 6 Jan 2017), memorial page for Dr. William S Howe (1835-1891), Find A Grave Memorial no. 15825309, citing Pittsfield Village Cemetery, Pittsfield, Somerset County, Maine, USA; photograph provided by Jennifer Kelley.

But is this the right William S. Howe? We need to check the rest of the names on the marker. We find:

Grace E. Howe1	C. Emery Howe2	Annie P. Howe3

All three of those people were found in the 1870 Federal Census of Somerset County, Maine, USA in the household of William S. Howe. This looks to be the right family. Of course, that is assuming the family in the 1870 census is the right family. Might was well continue going down this rabbit hole unless some fact or event proves otherwise.

Now that I have the probable death date for William S Howe, Ancestry provided another hint. This time it is from the Maine, Wills and Probate Records, 1584-1999 collection. This collection has digitized images of wills and probates. A wonderful find! It is presented as a virtual microfilm and it isn't just one image but the will and probate file for William S. Howe goes from image 383 to image 405. We even find the will itself:

"Maine, Wills and Probate Records, 1584-1999," database and images, Ancestry (http://www.ancestry.ca: accessed 6 Jan 2017), William S Howe will dated 13 Jun 1891; citing Probate Court (Androscoggin County, Maine) 

William mentions his daughter Josie E. Howe and his wife Grace E. Howe. We saw them in the 1880 Federal Census, Somerset County, Maine, USA. So the will and probate appears to be for the same William S. Howe we have been following.

A hint from the U.S., Newspaper Extractions from the Northeast, 1704-1930 collection also appears. This is only an index and for the image of the index document it states, "Howe, Dr.,W.S., d. Aug,25,1891(T . Aug.26)". This is a pointer to the August 26, 1891 edition of the Boston Transcript. So, where do we find the Boston Transcript? The Vita Brevis blog of the New England Historical Genealogical Society posted on November 7, 2016 "Boston Transcript column now online" is a great write up on finding that newspaper so I will defer to them.

Unfortunately me for, the August 26, 1891 edition isn't in the Google News Archive. Murphy's Law strikes again...the August 25 edition has been digitized but not the 26th.

But wait a second

If I go to the August 25 edition and keep going through the pages I come to the August 26th edition. Interesting!

On page 8 of the Boston Evening Transcript under "Recent Deaths" I find this notice:

"Recent Deaths - Dr. W. S. Howe," Boston Evening Transcript, 26 Aug 1891, p. 8, col. 5; digital images, Google News Archives (http://news.google.com/newspapers : accessed 6 Jan 2017).

Captain in the First Maine Cavalry? I wonder where this will lead me?

To be continued...

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1. Find A Grave, database and images (http://findagrave.com : accessed 6 Jan 2017), memorial page for Grace E Howe (1834-1907), Find A Grave Memorial no. 15825313, citing Pittsfield Village Cemetery, Pittsfield, Somerset County, Maine, USA; photograph provided by Jim.

2. Find A Grave, database and images (http://findagrave.com : accessed 6 Jan 2017), memorial page for C Emery Howe (unknown-1882), Find A Grave Memorial no. 15825300, citing Pittsfield Village Cemetery, Pittsfield, Somerset County, Maine, USA; photograph provided by Jim.

3. Find A Grave, database and images (http://findagrave.com : accessed 6 Jan 2017), memorial page for Annie P Howe (unknown-1876), Find A Grave Memorial no. 15825317, citing Pittsfield Village Cemetery, Pittsfield, Somerset County, Maine, USA; photograph provided by Jim.

A Research Methodology Case Study: When did John Wragg die?

Sorry about not posting for the past week but I was involved in the very successful 20th Annual BIFHSGO Family History Conference this past weekend where I was not only the host of the Research Room but also a co-presenter on Friday for a seminar on researching your English and Welsh ancestors. As you can imagine it was a busy week.

One of the challenges we all faced as a beginner was not knowing where to look for answers. Sometimes even what should be the easiest question to answer becomes a major brick wall for someone just starting out. The following question was asked at the Friday seminar and here are the steps I took to find the most likely answer:

Question

When did John Wragg die?

Known facts

• He was living in Dunstable, Bedfordshire, England
• An elderly aunt said he died the day she was born which was August 25, 1901
• His wife's name is Annie Marsh
• The following children are known: Rosa (b. 1876), Lydia, Annie, Lucy, William, John, Dorothy Lydia (b. abt 1891)

Step 1 - Finding out John Wragg's birth year

Which the last child born about 1891 I decided to start looking for the family in the 1891 census of England. Since I have a world subscription to Ancestry that was the easiest place to look for the family, especially since their search system allows me to include all his children as part of the search. Below is the Advanced search screen I used for the query.

As you can see, I only entered in the very basic details and restricted it to collections from England online.

When I focused the search results to the 1891 census of England there were only two results that percolated to the top of the list. Of those two, the first one had five of the seven children that we knew about.

Unless additional information appears the proves otherwise I'd say that the first census is the one we are interested in.

1891 census of England, Yorkshire, Civil Parish of Sowerby, Sowerby Bridge, folio 101, page 2, Household of John William Wragg; digital images, Ancestry.com, Ancestry.com (http://www.ancestry.com/ : accessed 23 Sep 2014); citing PRO RG 12/3600. 

Viewing the image of the census reveals some information we didn't know when we started.

• His full name appears to be John William Wragg
• He was 38 years old when the 1891 census was taken so he was born about about 1853
• He was born in Wadsley, Yorkshire
• He is recorded as being a labourer in 1891

Step 2 - Set the limits on when he died

Can we find him and the family in the 1901 census of England (according to the elderly aunt he should still be around)?

1901 census of England, London, Civil Parish of Camberwell, folio 143, page 4, Household of John Wragg; digital images, Ancestry.com, Ancestry.com (http://www.ancestry.com : accessed 23 Sep 2014); citing PRO RG 13/506. 

This looks to be the household but now they are residing in Camberwell, London and not all the children are there but that is understandable since the eldest children are of marrying age and have probably moved away. But it does seem that John Wragg is alive in 1901, but is he still living in 1911?

A search for him in the 1911 census of England returns no results that appear to match but searching for Annie Wragg, born about 1853, in Swindon, Wiltshire (from the 1901 census) returns her listed as a widow living with a son Jack, age 24 years, in Dunstable, Bedfordshire.

So it appears that John Wragg died between 31 March 1901 and 2 Apr 1911, the dates of the 1901 and 1911 census respectively.

Step 3 - Finding his death registration

Using FreeMBD (just because I like to highlight other resources, especially if they are free, but you can use Ancestry too for this) I entered the details I believed I knew were correct into their search form:

Surprisingly there were only two possible entries found. A John William Wragg that was 52 years of age that was recorded in the registration district of Luton and a 2 year old in the registration district of Rotherham. I'm fairly certain we can rule out the 2 year old.

So what does the registration district of Luton include? Clicking on the Luton link a screen pops up stating that "The district Luton spans the boundaries of the counties of Bedfordshire and Hertfordshire". He was in Bedfordshire in 1891 and his widow is back there for the 1911 census. This looks promising. Following the links on FreeBMD to find out more about the Luton registration district brings up a page on UKBMD that has Dunstable on the list of civil parishes for that district.

You could stop here and order his death registration from the General Register Office (never order it from Ancestry since they tack on a surcharge) to confirm that it is him. But there is one more place to check and that is the "England &Wales, National Probate Calendar (Index of Wills and Administrations), 1858-1966" collection on Ancestry.

Step 4 - Extra Credits

A search of the "England & Wales, National Probate Calendar (Index of Wills and Administrations), 1858-1966" collection results in finding the following entry:

Name: John William Wragg
Probate Date: 4 Oct 1904
Death Date: 20 Aug 1904
Death Place: Bedfordshire, England
Registry: London, England

Looking at the entry on the index page you see that he was of the "Crown" inn Houghton Regis near Dunstable. This actually matches additional information that was known about the family (but not divulged until I had found this record). Even better we now know that he died on 20 Aug 1904.

Ancestry.com, "National Probate Calendar (Index of Wills and Administrations), 1858-1966," database and images, Ancestry.com (http://www.ancestry.com/ : accessed 23 Sep 2014), John William Wragg, probated 4 Oct 1904; citing Principal Probate Registry. Calendar of the Grants of Probate and Letters of Administration made in the Probate Registries of the High Court of Justice in England. London, England.

Everything appears to fit with what had been provided. Except that the elderly aunt was wrong as to the day and the year of his death.

Just remember to always take with a grain of salt anything that has been told to you. There is usually a kernel of truth contained within but stories need to be verified.

When is a Wilkerson a Wilkinson?

One of the many challenges we can face when exploring our various family lines is coming across a surname change in one of the branches. In my case I was researching the Wilkerson line that, around the mid to late 1780s, came to what later became known as Canada. Much like most of my research I was working from the present to the past. Everything was going just fine until I came to the Robert Wilkerson that was born about 1785 and died July 21, 1843. That is when the problem began. OK, actually he wasn't the problem. It was his father or more correctly how his father spelled the family name.

On handwritten notes found in the collections of the Niagara Peninsula branch of the Ontario Genealogical Society that at the time were housed at the Thorold Public Library but are now at the St. Catharines Public Library there was comment on the Wilkerson page of "Robert Wilkinson or Wilkerson" with one of the children listed as "Robert". It just happened that on the same day I was looking at the collection another couple was also researching the same family name. Except they were coming at it from the John Wilkerson (husband of Anne Hoover) branch.

Since I am a doubting sort when it comes to documents that I have no idea as to their source or providence I could only use that note as a possible clue or guidepost. I knew I had to dig further to verify this change of surname and make sure the Wilkerson and Wilkinson families were one in the same. Since the events took place in the early history of Upper Canada and civil birth, marriage, and death registrations are non-existent I decided to use will and land records. Yes, church records are a possibility but many have been lost in this early time of Ontario and even then many don't record the names of parents when it comes to marriage records or funerals.

My first stop was the Niagara Settlers web site. This is an amazing resource for those with ancestors that settled in the Niagara Peninsula region after the American Revolution. There you will find transcriptions of land transactions and petitions along with some old township maps. There I found transcriptions under the name of Robert Wilkerson Sr. for a number of land transactions to his sons made via wills. But it this the right person since the transcription says Wilkerson and not Wilkinson? The only way to be sure is to get a copy of the wills.

From the will of Robert Wilkinson, written 12 May 1813¹

Step 1: Finding the Wills

The first thing I had to do was to find the wills in question. For that I headed over to the Archives of Ontario web site and their online "Ontario Court of Probate and Surrogate Court Records: Wills and Estate Files - A Pathfinder" document. From the clues I'd already been able to gather I know (or presumed) the following:

• Robert Wilkerson died 21 Jul 1843 [from his grave marker]
• John Wilkerson died in 1827 [from hand written notes in the Thorold library]
• Robert Wilkinson died in 1813 [from hand written notes in the Thorold library]

So it seemed that all the deaths happened before 1859 so that is a good thing for me since there are actually online indexes on the Archives of Ontario web site:

Inventory 22, Appendix A1 (Court of Probate)

• Surnames: A to G
• Surnames: H to N 
• Surnames: O to Z

Inventory 22, Appendix A25 (Surrogate Courts)

I didn't find any Wilkerson or Wilkinson names from the townships and counties in the Niagara area in the Inventory 22, Appendix A1 (Court of Probate) index but a check of Inventory 22, Appendix A25 (Surrogate Courts) had quite a number with those surnames from Lincoln county.

The next step to locate the microfilm that has the information from the Surrogate Court was to locate the records for Lincoln county. I went to the Estate files section and found that all the possible name variants for this family in Lincoln county could be found on microfilm MS 8421. That was almost too easy. Through the Ottawa Public Library I knew I could order that microfilm via the Interlibrary Loan program. The hardest part was the waiting for the microfilm to arrive ... almost 3 weeks but it finally did come in.

Step 2: Saving the Microfilm Pages

The reading of the old handwriting can be a chore and, depending on the scribbles, sometimes near impossible. Instead of attempting to do the work at the library I made use of the one and only microfilm reader with USB saving capabilities at the main branch of the library to save the pages as images. Since the pages on the microfilm reader were larger than what could be scanned in in one shot I scanned them in piecemeal (top, bottom, left, right, etc.) with the expectation of being able to stitch them together at home into a readable document.

[As an aside, whenever you scan a microfilm page make sure you scan it at the highest resolution possible and save it in TIF format. Although it makes for a huge file it will be a good thing later on when you need to zoom in or do any editing to the pages.]

Once I got home I was able to use Microsoft's free (yes, FREE!) Image Composite Editor to just drag and drop the various parts of the pages onto the edit screen and it automagically created perfectly stitched together single pages for me.

Step 3: Reading and Transcribing

This for me is always the most painful part of genealogy research. But I have found that if I don't do this, especially for long handwritten documents, I can easily lose track of what I've read and that leads to confusion. Always a bad thing when doing research. A few days later (I had to take breaks so I wouldn't go too crazy) I had the wills transcribed. By the way, the more practice you have in reading and transcribing these documents the easier it becomes.

Step 4: Analysis and Conclusion

This was the interesting part. I now had the transcriptions of the wills of the Robert Wilkinson and that of two of his sons to work from plus digital images of the wills to verify what I had transcribed (yes, sometimes I even doubt my own transcriptions).

In the will of Robert Wilkinson of the Township of Thorold, Lincoln County, Niagara District, Upper Canada dated May 12, 1813¹ he leaves the following property to his sons:

• Lot 46: to son Robert
• Lot 47: to son John
• Lot 70: one third (south end) to son Jacob, two thirds (north end) to son Robert
• Lot 93: one third (south end) to son Jacob, two thirds (north end) to son John

Previously Robert had given by deed the following lots

• Lot 92: to son Jacob

In the will of John Wilkerson² of the Township of Thorold, Lincoln County, Niagara District, Upper Canada dated August 21, 1827 he authorizes his executors to “…sell my real or landed estates and to make legal titles for the same…”. The lands in the Township of Thorold, Lincoln County, Niagara District are:

• Lot 47
• Lot 70

The will of Robert Wilkerson³ of the Township of Thorold, Lincoln County, Niagara District, Province of Canada dated July 18, 1843 has the following lands listed in the Township of Thorold, Lincoln County, Niagara District:

• Lot 46: to son Robert Morgan
• Lot 69: two thirds to son Robert Morgan

So from these documents we see that the land that Robert Wilkinson bequeathed to his sons John and Robert appear in the wills of John Wilkerson and Robert Wilkerson. In addition to the aforementioned wills, extracts⁴ from the Abstracts of Deeds taken from the Register of Thorold Township provide details concerning the early land transactions of that township. These extracts confirm that the lands stated within the various families. By following these wills we can see the surname change from Wilkinson to Wilkerson.

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1. Ontario, Estate Files (1794-1930), microfilm MS 8421, Will for Robert Wilkinson, dated 12 May 1813; Archives of Ontario, Toronto.
2. Ontario, Estate Files (1794-1930), microfilm MS 8421, Will for John Wilkinson, dated 21 Aug 1827; Archives of Ontario, Toronto.
3. Ontario, Estate Files (1794-1930), microfilm MS 8421, Will for Robert Wilkerson, dated 18 Jul 1843; Archives of Ontario, Toronto.
4. Niagara Settlers, Settler Records “W”, Thorold Township, Welland County, Extracted from the Abstracts of Deeds, Register of Thorold Township, https://sites.google.com/site/niagarasettlers2/thorold-6: 2 Sep 2014.